Last Thursday, I found myself in the back of an ambulance with my handcuffed husband, Ravi Ragbir, two E.M.T.s and an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As the ambulance inched its way out of 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, I caught glimpses of the chaos outside. Faces of friends swam in and out of view. We could hear the shouts and wails of the hundreds of supporters surrounding us, who knew Ravi had been arrested, feared he was being “disappeared” and were attempting, nonviolently, with their bodies, to protect him.
Ravi’s arrest is the latest in a series of arrests that makes clear to us that ICE is targeting immigrant activists and leaders for detention and deportation. In the past week alone we have learned of three other leaders who have been deported, detained or placed into deportation proceedings. Each of them has been outspoken about his or her own immigration case and has worked toward a more just system for everyone.
Ravi is an immigrant from Trinidad and the executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, a network of faith groups that works to reform detention and deportation practices in our city and nationwide. About 18 years ago, he was convicted of wire fraud; after he finished his sentence, ICE detained him. He had been a legal permanent resident, but his green card was taken away, and he has been fighting a deportation order since 2006.
Ravi and I met through our mutual work on immigrant rights and married in 2010. Even though I am an American citizen, Ravi continues to face deportation because of his criminal conviction. As he fights his own deportation, he works with hundreds of other immigrants in New York, accompanying them to their ICE check-ins, developing a legal support clinic and organizing churches and synagogues to fight deportation.
Continue reading the main storyLast week, Ravi had his regularly scheduled check-in with ICE. Once routine, these check-ins have become terrifying under President Trump, with immigrants being detained and deported after meeting with officials.
When Ravi, his lawyer and I walked into the building, we were more nervous than usual, even though nothing had changed in Ravi’s case.
Ravi Ragbir Is Detained in Manhattan
Immigrant rights leader Ravi Ragbir passed out when he heard he would be detained. An ambulance was called; Ravi's supporters blocked the vehicle's path because they feared he would be taken to a detention center.
By WILL COLEY on Publish Date January 18, 2018. .We had reason to fear: A week earlier, ICE agents in unmarked vans detained another immigration leader, Jean Montrevil, as he went home for lunch the day before his check-in. He has been deported to Haiti. On the same day Ravi was detained, ICE detained Eliseo Jurado, an immigrant rights leader in Colorado, and a week later, another leader, Maru Mora-Villalpando, announced that she received a notice to appear in immigration court in Seattle.
When the ICE officer told us that Ravi’s legal options were exhausted and that he would be deported, Ravi passed out. I held my husband tightly. Ravi revived, someone called for medical attention, and the officer stormed out.
By nighttime, Ravi had been flown to Miami. I spent the day struggling to accept that my husband had been taken from me, unsure where he was.
As a longtime immigrant rights lawyer and advocate, I am well aware of the horrific conditions in the jails that hold immigrants. I know how deportation tears at the fabric of families and communities.
But now I am inside this nightmare personally — and it hurts more than I ever thought it would. I come home to an empty apartment, and everything announces — screams — Ravi’s absence.
Like Jean and thousands of other immigrants caught in ICE raids, Ravi threatens no one. On the contrary, Ravi and Jean and other immigrant leaders have led their communities with dignity and courage in a brutal time. That’s why they were snatched — and it’s why ICE wants to deport them.
The last time I saw my husband was through Plexiglas at the Krome Detention Center in Miami. After six tense days and a court hearing on Jan. 16, ICE said it will bring Ravi back to the New York area so that he can be closer to his family, his legal counsel and his community. But he remains detained, and he is still not safe from deportation.
We are continuing to challenge his detention. My greatest fear is that he will be sent back to Trinidad, where he has not lived for over 25 years. We must keep Ravi, and other immigrant leaders at home in the United States, where they belong.
Continue reading the main story